Number of Players Lost Since Glacier?

[Foxglove]

Are any statistics available on how many players have closed accounts or paused all characters since the start of the glacier event? I seem to have seen a lot of people leaving the game or pausing over the past week in particular.

Just curious to know whether the stats are significantly up from normal rates of player loss.

[Telrunya]

Lots of those pauses have likely been caused by the April Fools joke. The Realm I play in, while not directly affected by the Glacier, has seen an increase in Nobles.

[Anaris]

I haven't been keeping any kind of close track, but I've definitely noticed what appears to be an increase in new account creation in at least one of my realms over the past week or so.

[Gustav Kuriga]

I have not. Which is sad, considering Barca was one of the more active realms.

[Atanamir]

Being affected in almost all realms I can mention account deletions and migration as main event.
Especially players with only chars in one realm (2 char in one realm families are here very endangered).

The tricky thing though is if an account gets deleted it might hit also realms who are not affected as a players could have had only 1 or 2 chars out of 3 or 4 affected.

[Buffalkill]

I would have thought this would be one of the data points that the dev team would be right on top of.

[Penchant]

I would have thought this would be one of the data points that the dev team would be right on top of.

As has been stated elsewhere, the dev team expected there to be people who quit because of this. When something major happens, people quit. It was never intended to be something great for the game in the short term, but in the long term.

[Buffalkill]

As has been stated elsewhere, the dev team expected there to be people who quit because of this. When something major happens, people quit. It was never intended to be something great for the game in the short term, but in the long term.

Yes, but they can't test that hypothesis without keeping relevant data.

[bofeng]

I agree some transparency could bring more trust between development team and the average players.

I believe development team are made of hardcore players who will guard the common interests of most players in making it attractive, balanced, fun in their best efforts. However, it happens that they are also players and have their own interests within the game. Consider the close result for many elections. If the development team were also voting on the south or north poll without prior knowledge, they probably will vote for their side, and the result would be different. Given the result of the decision is so devastating for many affected realms, such lack of transparency raises mistrust and may make some disappointed players leave.

Second, the changes are for the purpose of addressing a long term problem, which was identified as the player density problem. Yet the solution is a very rash one, that within one month, many lands have to be destroyed. Keep in mind a character can only move two regions every day. The monsters or the iceberg is almost moving as fast as the fastest character? Long term problems should be addressed with a more considerate plan. If the player density problem is not driving the players away, why should we hurry up with a plan to destroy lands and cripple realms in such a rush? Will these changes attract immediate attention for the game? Highly unlikely. It gives many players the feeling that God should not be punishing them so hard. This bitter feeling only ends at driving some players away instead of keeping them engaged. Luckily my character is on the eastern side of the Dwilight world, but honestly I feel confused what actions of those western realms have brought them into such punishment of rampaging monsters on their lands? Is it just because they decided to settle down in the newer part of the continent? Why can't God gradually take their lands, giving them more time to invade the eastern world? Is it because the eastern world is favored by God? Most people have to think so. :-\

Going forward, I am sure development team will take best care of the game world as they can. But all these critical decisions are made within a small circle, yet affecting so many players. Please keep in mind some involvement from average players may not be necessarily a bad thing. Transparency may be the best way to deal with mistrust and conflict of interests.

[Anaris]

And this is why there's no possible way we can win: Because no matter how public we make the decisions, no matter how obviously open and random we make it, there will still be people who make bull!@#$ passive-aggressive non-accusations like this:

Consider the close result for many elections. If the development team were also voting on the south or north poll without prior knowledge, they probably will vote for their side, and the result would be different. Given the result of the decision is so devastating for many affected realms, such lack of transparency raises mistrust and may make some disappointed players leave.

If you do not believe that the decisions on which regions to glaciate were made entirely without reference to political affiliation or where our characters were located, despite dozens of assurances of this from the dev team, you may as well leave the game now, because you'll never, ever be able to trust anything we do.

Furthermore, this isn't even paranoia, it's just plain wrong:

The monsters or the iceberg is almost moving as fast as the fastest character?

The Ice has been moving, on average, something like 1-2 regions per week. I know, because I've been the one moving it. Every character in the game can move faster than that.

Finally, to address this:

Long term problems should be addressed with a more considerate plan.

This was the more considerate plan. Or have you forgotten already that we were talking about simply closing down an island—boom, done, no chance of any survival or reprieve? And anything that runs slower than what we're doing now would still have all the negative effects of losing the regions, but just drag it out over so much longer that it would piss off more people in the end.

All that said, once I can get a couple of current things out of the way (one being the Titan overhaul, the other being a project I'm keeping secret so it can be a pleasant surprise for everyone), I do plan to publicize more of the stuff I'll be working on. That doesn't mean that I'll be sharing everything, or that I'll take everyone's suggestions. As always, while it's good to hear the players' desires, doing everything they want is one of the easiest ways to destroy any game.

One of the most important—and most difficult—jobs the dev team has is deciding which possible courses of action to take in terms of improving the game. That includes everything from minor feature requests to events like the Ice Age. Just because it seems obvious to you that one way of doing things is Teh Bestest doesn't mean that it actually is. (And this part isn't just aimed at bofeng, but rather at pretty much everyone who's ever made or thought of a feature request.)

[Atanamir]

And this is why there's no possible way we can win: Because no matter how public we make the decisions, no matter how obviously open and random we make it, there will still be people who make bull!@#$ passive-aggressive non-accusations like this:

If you do not believe that the decisions on which regions to glaciate were made entirely without reference to political affiliation or where our characters were located, despite dozens of assurances of this from the dev team, you may as well leave the game now, because you'll never, ever be able to trust anything we do.

Anaris. Let's say this very straight.
The polls were not IC, they were on the forum.
On the forum are only active players.
So only active players voted.
Which again means that it hits active realms where these players play.
Which again makes it not really random.
If you can accept that this is why now so many players are against what happened, then you could also find a way for a solution to ease them.

I repeat, it is your current lacking failure management that does not let this discussion shut down.
I see players coming up with statistical data which make very valid points for what they say and the admins lock or delete threads.
Is that your plan to end this? Seriously?
Either the players will be heard or they will be continued to be shut down till they leave.

And then you will have your right and Bm again many less players.
I mean seriously, did I just read from the dev team the indirect soltuion to just leave the game?!
Is that what you want? Is that how you treat people who don't agree with you?

Maybe you should start accepting some input here and try to come up with some hard facts like has been asked for.
That would be more constructive.
But maybe now this thread will get locked or even deleted as well.

[Gustav Kuriga]

And this is why there's no possible way we can win: Because no matter how public we make the decisions, no matter how obviously open and random we make it, there will still be people who make bull!@#$ passive-aggressive non-accusations like this:

If you do not believe that the decisions on which regions to glaciate were made entirely without reference to political affiliation or where our characters were located, despite dozens of assurances of this from the dev team, you may as well leave the game now, because you'll never, ever be able to trust anything we do.

Furthermore, this isn't even paranoia, it's just plain wrong:

The Ice has been moving, on average, something like 1-2 regions per week. I know, because I've been the one moving it. Every character in the game can move faster than that.

Finally, to address this:

This was the more considerate plan. Or have you forgotten already that we were talking about simply closing down an island—boom, done, no chance of any survival or reprieve? And anything that runs slower than what we're doing now would still have all the negative effects of losing the regions, but just drag it out over so much longer that it would piss off more people in the end.

All that said, once I can get a couple of current things out of the way (one being the Titan overhaul, the other being a project I'm keeping secret so it can be a pleasant surprise for everyone), I do plan to publicize more of the stuff I'll be working on. That doesn't mean that I'll be sharing everything, or that I'll take everyone's suggestions. As always, while it's good to hear the players' desires, doing everything they want is one of the easiest ways to destroy any game.

One of the most important—and most difficult—jobs the dev team has is deciding which possible courses of action to take in terms of improving the game. That includes everything from minor feature requests to events like the Ice Age. Just because it seems obvious to you that one way of doing things is Teh Bestest doesn't mean that it actually is. (And this part isn't just aimed at bofeng, but rather at pretty much everyone who's ever made or thought of a feature request.)

I feel that the more considerate plan would have been just closing an island. We all were expecting that, as it had been talked over before. This glacier/monster event was never talked about beforehand. We didn't have time to prepare for it, and it affects one set of people on a continent more than another, creating OOC tensions that need not be there.

[Anaris]

I repeat, it is your current lacking failure management that does not let this discussion shut down.
I see players coming up with statistical data which make very valid points for what they say and the admins lock or delete threads.

Again, you're assuming that this is a failure, and that the data showing people leaving "proves" this, when all it proves is that what is happening is exactly what we predicted so far.

If, in six months, the data shows that we're still bleeding players at a rate higher than before the Ice Age began, then you can come to me and say that it failed, and I'll agree with you. For now, it's just way, way too soon to tell. So be patient.

I mean seriously, did I just read from the dev team the indirect soltuion to just leave the game?!
Is that what you want? Is that how you treat people who don't agree with you?

No, it's how I treat people who accuse me of cheating and lying.

And I'm dead serious, and I know that Tom will agree with me completely: If you do not trust the dev team to be impartial, regardless of what we say, then you cannot hope to play this game without constantly looking over your shoulder. So you may as well leave.

[Anaris]

I feel that the more considerate plan would have been just closing an island. We all were expecting that, as it had been talked over before. This glacier/monster event was never talked about beforehand. We didn't have time to prepare for it, and it affects one set of people on a continent more than another, creating OOC tensions that need not be there.

Yes, and I'd heard a great deal of that talk. A lot of people were saying, "Well, if X island gets closed down, I'll just leave the game."

And closing an island affects one set of people more than another, too: they just happen to be people on this continent vs that continent.

In any case, we've been over this ground before, many times. We're just going to have to agree to disagree, because I'm still 100% convinced that this is a better option than closing a continent outright.

[Atanamir]

And I'm dead serious, and I know that Tom will agree with me completely: If you do not trust the dev team to be impartial, regardless of what we say, then you cannot hope to play this game without constantly looking over your shoulder. So you may as well leave.

No way. I have to be here in 6 months to ask you for that data  8)
And by failure management I don't mean that this is already a failure.
I mean more your current methods of communication with the complaining party.
Imagine what happens if in 6 months the other party is proven right.
That's why I'd ask you to be more transparent and less oppressive and aggressive in here and leave room for possible mistakes on your side. Just as you did in your reply to me now. But this could be done in more points in this discussion.